How to be a good blog-fan

If you are here reading this, then congratulations! You have taken the first step to being a wonderful blog-reader (or blog-fan if I may be so inclined). Already I love and appreciate you! You are my audience and a huge motivation to keep me writing.

One huge integral part to blogging is YOU! I do hope that I have entertained you, made you smile or even made you think a bit at some point. If I haven’t yet, I strive to do just that.

Something you may not know though is that blogging goes both ways. Whether we know each other in person, through social media or maybe you ended up here by accident, I think most bloggers can agree that reader support is the sweet icing on the cake.

But how can you show your favourite blogger some love?

I have put together some tips to keep in mind next time you visit a blog. While none of these are mandatory, think of them like tipping your server. If you like what you read, you have the option to show us how much you enjoyed it.

COMMENT LOVE!

For me, the moment I hit that “Publish” button, my heart still beats a little faster in anticipation for your thoughts. Will you love what I wrote, do you agree or disagree with my opinion, do you have something to add or share?

Very little is more disheartening to a blogger than an empty inbox with zero comments.

Another reason comments are fabulous is that they tell us what you, our fabulous readers, enjoy reading. If I try out something new and I receive zero feedback, I am unlikely to go that route again. Unfortunately if you did enjoy it but didn’t comment, that could mean that you will miss out on some of my genius later (haha).

SOCIAL MEDIA LOVE

Showing a blogger some social media love is a huge compliment. There are several ways you can do this, depending on how you like to handle your social media. First is obviously to follow the blog on social media. I follow the etiquette that upon reading one enjoyable or entertaining post on a blog, you should give at least one social media channel a little love. LIKE their Facebook page, Follow on Twitter, Pinterest, Instagram, Google+, etc (whatever one you like to use the most).

If you like something we’ve shared on social media (a link to a post, a funny picture, a status update, etc) then a simple “LIKE” goes a long way. It shows me that you are out there actually reading what I am sharing. Commenting on the post is even better! I love reading comments on everything I share. The reason I share them is because I want to know what you think.

The ultimate way to show your love on social media is to SHARE. Sharing the link, post or funny picture on Facebook or Re-Tweeting the link on Twitter. If you use Pinterest, pinning my post is a huge honour as well. Many will create a board titled something like “blog posts I love” and will pin their favourite posts there if they don’t have another board that fits the subject matter.

I’ll mention Google+ but I’m certain most of you probably don’t use it… yet! You probably will one day… and when you do, please +1 your favourite blog posts.

BLOG LOVE

On occasion, I come across another blog or blogger that I want to send a little extra love. I don’t do this often as I would hate to spam your newsfeed but when I do share it means I have put some thought into it and really want to send a heartfelt “hello there, you rock” to the author. Sometimes it’s another blog that I read myself, a particular post I absolutely loved or perhaps even a blogger who helped me out in some way – either way, I like to “pay them back” by sharing their blog on my social media channels, giving them a little extra visibility. This could mean sending them a little shout-out on my FB page, doing a #FF (follow Friday) on Twitter or even sharing a particular post that I really enjoyed reading. When I do this, I want that blogger to feel the love and that means that I really hope you will take a few moments of your time to show them just how awesome my readers are. Head over to their page or post, LIKE or comment (or anything else suggested above).

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The thing to keep in mind is that for a very large number of us, blogging is not a paying gig. We do this because we love to write. It may be a hobby or perhaps an aspiration for something much bigger – either way, we are offering up this content for free. While that is our choice and I’m sure most will continue to do it until our fingers fall off even without ever receiving a penny nickle in compensation, payment in Likes, Comments, Shares and Tweets can feel like gold.

So I do thank you for joining me on this ride so far and hope you enjoy what’s to come. You may not love everything I write but when you do… don’t forget to tip your blogger on your way out. 😉

xo – J

P.S. I didn’t mention it above because I know we all get WAY too much email… but the ultimate “I LOVE YOU” comes in the form of subscribing to the blog via the box on the top right hand corner of this page. This tells me that you love my post so much that you want to be notified immediately via email whenever something new is published. I’d be thrilled if you could but take no offense if you choose not to. <3

Entrepreneur, Child-Wrangler and Domestic-Goddess-Wannabe, Jenn is a married, mother of two. She is also the founder of That's So Social and Editor in Chief of Travel Mavens.
Likes: travel, eggs benedict, yoga pants, dogs, and Netflix.